Move Aside, GTX 680: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 Review

Though it might seem a bit unusual to see NVIDIA let loose its GTX 770 a mere week after its 780 launch, here’s something to clear things up: $399. Built on GK104 (not GK110, like the 780), the GTX 770 is in effect a beefed-up GTX 680. It boasts 700 series features, NVIDIA’s latest cooler, and of course, a savings of about $100.

Game Tests: Borderlands 2, Metro: Last Light & BioShock Infinite

For this article, I picked three special games to benchmark thanks to their popularity; Borderlands 2, Metro: Last Light and BioShock Infinite. I had hoped to get a couple of others in, such as Hitman Absolution and Far Cry 3, but due to various hassles, I ended up scrapping them. However, the games that are here are quite good both from a graphics and gameplay standpoint.

Borderlands 2

For this game, I wanted to test with a place that featured a lot of PhysX, to see how the GTX 780 compared specifically to the GTX 680. So, I loaded up Frostburn Canyon, took a left and went up and over the bridge to do battle with a number of enemies there. For some reason, this is an area that utilizes PhysX a lot more than others, so it’s a great place to take in all of the eye candy. Details are completely maxed out for this game.

As with an earlier test, the GTX 680 inches 1 FPS ahead of the 770 at 1080p, which is no doubt due to normal variance (sometimes, I wish time and sanity allowed benchmarking each resolution ten times). Moving up to the big pixel-pushers, the 770 regains its place.

Metro: Last Light

While I normally shy away from built-in benchmarks or timedemos, I’ve opted to use them for this game, and the next, on account of me never having played either (thus, no saved game). Fortunately, the built-in benchmark with Metro: Last Light is quite good, and thorough. Graphics options are mostly maxed, with the overall detail level sitting at High (not Very High), along with the Tessellation at Normal.

Although it’s a bit disappointing for those who might not have the beefiest GPUs at their perusal, it’s somewhat satisfying to see a game come out for the PC that at high detail manages just 40 FPS average on a $649 GPU. And to think, there’s a “Very High” detail option available. That aside, the GTX 770 continues doing what it does best: beating out the GTX 680.

BioShock Infinite

Jamie raved over this game and for good reason. It’s an epic adventure, and it has some stellar graphics, chock-full of eye-candy. Of course, it was worth benchmarking, especially since the game perfectly supports multi-monitor out-of-the-box (cheers, Irrational Games!) Here, we simply use the built-in benchmark utility, with the graphics options all cranked in-game.

Our last game test wraps up just like most of them have: the GTX 770 inches past the GTX 680, ever-so-slightly. Now, onto some synthetics.